Steeks

I know that steeks are to some the pinnacle of knitting. It's not something I'ver ever done before but now I'm doing two fairisle cardigans at once and so suddenly they are a large part of my life. I am fairly sure though that if the finest steekers happened to chance across these cardigans or this blog in the future they would need a sit down and a stiff nip before they could continue with whatever they were doing. You see not having steeked before and being by nature a bodger I have applied Byrne Logic to the issue. For instance, I know that steeked armholes are normally straight cuts and you pop the sleeve in the hole to give a square kind of shape. I know this, but I don;t agree with it. So I decided to do steeks with a set in sleeve. I realised that it would be a bit like trying to sew a curved hem (something I also bodge) and that one simple cut wouldn't work with this sleeve type. So this is what I've ended up with.

That is the bottom of the armhole. I cast off the first cast off row and then cast on again on the next round to start the steek. Then as other stitches needed to be cast off I've moved the stitch marker that far into the garment and tried to decrease the same number of stitches in the middle of the steek. Confused? Me too - especially when I realised I'd been reading the wrong numbers and had to lose an extra 40 stitches suddenly (never go back, especially where it's fairisle with sticky wool). Has anyone else ever done something like this? Is it normal?!

Whatever has been happening with the steeks it's all looking rather nice, although a lot stripier than I thought it would.

I would have got further on this if I hadn't been alternating with bargello and embroidery. The bargello from the Doodle Zine is done and I adore it.

It's about 6" square. Will take it to be framed once I am mobile. Plus of course there have been more pants. Some for my sister and these for me!

This embroidery has made me revisit embroidery transfers on Flickr. There are thousands! And loads of other images that aren't them but could be. If you're interested set aside an hour and start here. Then see where all the links take you. It's all free and when you find one you like just add it to your faves for later.